There have always been dishonest people out to defraud and take advantage at other people's expense. At this time when social media plays a role in most of our lives, cybercriminal activity has exploded. This has recently become very personal for me. My children are all adults, and perhaps it is no longer my place to speak up, but when something I recognize as dangerous involves one of them, my motherly instinct kicks in, and I become outraged.

My most recent concern involves an internet scam in which the scammer goes to great lengths to impersonate a celebrity. The person contacts the victim on social media, pretending to like something that person has posted. It could be something shared, an opinion, or a photograph. The victim is flattered by having attracted the attention of someone they admire. Hundreds of celebrities have had someone use them as a way to draw attention to themselves or to extort money.

If the victim responds, the game is on. The back-and-forth becomes personal. The scammer learns the vulnerable areas he can best work with. In the case of my daughter, the scammer was pretending to be the country music star Kenny Chesney. She admitted to being a singer herself and to having written many songs. He expressed great interest and assured her he was a producer, always on the lookout for new talent. He invited her to send him a tape, which she did. He told her she had a wonderful voice and indicated they could sing together where he was appearing.

Many celebrity scammers are very clever and go to great lengths to convince their victims they are actually who they claim to be. They often choose the celebrity they look and sound most like. By hair style and dress they are able to make themselves up to seem authentic enough to fool the star-struck victim. They create fake websites using actual pictures of the star, interspersed with pictures of themselves in costume.

This person who originally contacted her on Facebook claimed to like her political post. He asked for her number and called her. He said he would soon be in concert in a nearby city and would like to meet her. She saw him on the phone and it looked and sounded enough like him that she was convinced. The next step was to say he trusted her to help him. He wanted to have a valuable package sent to her, because he was in the islands and unable to get it himself. She would need to bring it when she came to meet him.

She was shown a copy of the invoice for the package with his name on it. To her way of thinking, this was all the proof she needed. Her dreams were about to be fulfilled. To me, it made no sense that a person with the resources and contacts of this star would need someone he had never met to bring a package to him. I was sure the package would arrive with money due, which would involve her paying by check, credit card, or a card she would need to purchase. My other thought was, if it came with no money due, the package would likely contain something illegal, which might get her arrested.

When I learned of this development, I got involved, more so than just warning her he was an imposter. I did some research online and found dozens of sites involving Kenny Chesney impersonators, who were in the process of scamming people. I sent her all of the sites, including a legitimate site, in which he assured his fans he had never and would never contact them personally on a social media site. 

To her credit, my daughter did read what I sent. Is she convinced? No, but she was shaken and became a bit paranoid, but is still vulnerable. Her ego is at stake. He has to be real. She has seen him on her phone and heard his voice. It is her chance to make it big in the music field. She would need to talk to him again, to be sure. After she talked to this person again, she still believes it to be him. I've done my best to convince her. I can only hope and pray she will continue to read and investigate, and will realize she could get in serious trouble by pursuing this.

My daughter is not the only one of my personal acquaintances who have fallen victim to schemers attempting to defraud them. I had a very close personal friend, recently deceased, who was a professor, with a PhD to her credit. Jackie was in her seventies, but certainly not senile. To me, this proves almost anyone might fall into the trap of those trying to deceive the public.

My friend was a devout Christian. When her husband got a phone call saying one of his relatives, who he didn’t personally know, had died with no will and no living descendants, she believed her prayers had been answered. Her husband was told he was the legal heir to a multimillion dollar estate. Jackie was convinced Divine Providence was working on their behalf. God knew they were charitable people, who would use the money to spread His message to the world.

The person who called said he was a lawyer, and he told them he would be doing further research involving time and money, but he would let them know when they could claim their inheritance. He would need funds along the way to further his research. She never admitted how much they sent, but it wasn’t long until they were almost destitute.

This went on for nearly ten years, with the couple being in constant contact with the scammer. He always indicated the wait was almost over. She and her husband contacted a bank to handle all the money they would receive. They looked at houses in the million-dollar price range. They contacted churches and schools, promising to pay off their mortgages as soon as they received the money. No one could convince them they were being scammed. When her husband said, “No more!” she asked me for a loan. I hated to turn down a friend, but couldn’t give her money to feed this predator.

The scam works because the deceased has the same last name as the one of whom he is alleged to be the beneficiary. Then the victim will be told the inheritance is difficult to access due to government regulations, taxes or bank restrictions in the country where the money is held, and they will need to pay money and provide personal details to claim it.

The love angle is big with the scammers. They usually contact the victim through a dating site or on social media. A lonely person or widow is most vulnerable. Once they have flattered the person enough to win their confidence, any imaginable lie is concocted to convince their contact to send money. People have been taken for all they own or can borrow. A girl I worked with bought her wedding dress, believing she was about to be married, only to learn she had fallen for a prisoner. When he was released, he immediately skipped out on parole, and left the state with a large sum of money she had given him.

Another close member of our extended family, who appeared to be happily married, made friends with someone on Facebook, who led her to believe he had fallen in love with her. He claimed to be extremely wealthy and wanted to marry her. He convinced her he needed her help getting to his money. She believed she would be rewarded many times over for her service. Without her husband’s knowledge, she managed to forge his signature, empty their bank account, and sell a good portion of their property, before the scam came to light. It ended a marriage that had lasted forty-five years. After this happened, her own children avoid being around her. The shame and heartbreak is devastating.

Dating scammers often steal the profile of others and convince their contact they are nice-looking, highly respected and have well-paying jobs or titles. Another close friend corresponded for months with one she believed to be a Count, before she learned he was an identity thief operating out of a prison. He had contacted her on Facebook and told her what an amazing photographer she was. Often the scammers work from prisons or operate out of foreign countries. Since 2015, Americans and Canadians have lost over one billion dollars on this alone. On average, the amount each victim loses is around $21,000. These criminals are extremely hard to track, and the losses are almost never recovered.

I've mentioned only a small sampling of people I know, who have fallen for one of the hundreds of variations of the schemes out there. My mother, who died before the internet became popular, was a trusting person who wanted to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I shudder to think what may have happened, had she had access to a computer. As it was, unsolicited letters arriving by mail, assuring her she had won either $10,000 or an automobile, tended to make her a believer in windfalls that never happened.

Phishing is basically an attempt to get your personal information, such as social security number, addresses, or bank account number. It is usually done by e-mail and often appears to be from an institution you are familiar with or from a personal friend.

I have become a bona fide skeptic, but there was a time a scammer managed to convince me that signals sent from my new computer had alerted Microsoft that my computer had contracted a virus and was in the process of destroying all my data. I was naïve enough about computers that I allowed the fake Microsoft technician to get on my computer remotely and remove the imaginary virus to the tune of $250.00. It was an expensive lesson for me. For years thereafter, I got regular calls telling me that other viruses had invaded my computer. Never again would I allow anyone I didn’t know to connect to my computer by remote control.

If you’re on Facebook, it’s almost a guarantee you’ve either experienced social media identity theft or know someone who has. Almost every day someone asks if I've sent them another friend request, when they know I am already their Facebook friend. The one who has managed to hack into my account creates another account using my picture, my profile and my friends, but allowing them access to do as they will. Then they began messaging my friends, pretending to be me. I’ve had to change my password many times, but that doesn’t seem to deter these identify thieves. Because of this, I never use Messenger, and I ignore all friend requests from people I know are already my friends. It has caused me to almost despise a site I once enjoyed. I no longer feel comfortable posting anything on this site.

There must be thousands of different scams out there. They come at us by telephone, internet and e-mail. Social media is one of the favorite ways to entrap us. Criminals have always been around, but the age of computers seems to have created a new class of criminals. Just the ones I know about alone could be made into a book.

There is no room in this essay to touch on all of them. I will briefly mention a few of the other common ways we are targeted: telemarketing fraud (telephone solicitation for phony goods or services), mail fraud, health care and insurance fraud, pension and trust fund fraud, credit card and check fraud (including fraud by impersonation resulting from theft of mail or credit cards), pyramid or Ponzi schemes, fake debt help, fake lotteries, fake charities, things written into fine print, and pre-approval schemes.

Virtually anyone can fall prey to fraudulent crimes. Con artists do not pass over anyone due to such factors as a person's age, finances, educational level, gender, race, culture, ability, or geographic location. In fact, fraud perpetrators often target certain groups based on these factors. Like their victims, fraud criminals vary educationally, socially, geographically, and financially. Most con-artists make a career of their criminal activities. Some even join professional organizations to legitimize their schemes and project a respectable front.

Most of these crimes go unreported, often because of shame or guilt. We doubt our own judgment and don’t like to admit that we have allowed ourselves to become victims. There are sources where these things can be reported, but most losses are never recovered. We should save all paperwork relating to the crime, including such items as letters of solicitation, checks or money orders, bank statements, investment statements, or medical statements. prospectuses, canceled checks, cash receipts, receipts for cashier's checks or money orders, bank statements, investment statements, or medical statements.

These things might prove useful, but more than anything else, we need to be aware that fraud is everywhere, and keep our eyes out for anything that might sound too good to be true, because very likely it is a crime waiting to happen. It is sad something designed to increase our knowledge and make our lives better has become a mine field which can destroy everything we’ve worked for, if we let our guard down.